Module 3: Role play support

In Module 3 we used Role play as a teaching and learning strategy to solve issues, do problem solving and explore the value of peer assessment in a gamified environment. We cooked at some issues that crops up in a ict enriched school milieu e.g. can the school go paperless?  By writing a storyboard for the roleplay that has to explore various issues connected to the topic, learners are forced to come up with various issues and angles and then find solutions. This strategy is a great way to make sure that learners really intimately engage with topics from a problem-solution point of view.

From a technology point of view, various skills can be incorporated to enhance this experience. Firstly, they (the learners) have to design (write) the roleplay and digitise that for sharing and as part of their portfolio. They can either write it out (old school) and then taking a photo or type it out using a word processor or their tablet journaling app (Memoires). The roleplay has to be practised, video-ed and edited and has to clearly adhere to the following rubric criteria:

So the format of the roleplay lesson could be: (Use the roleplay template here: https://goo.gl/UOx8i8 and it could be one lesson with the assessment being the next lesson.)

• Stating the problem in a single sentence
• Exploring what the various issues might be associated with the problem statement
• Assigning roles (who says what)
• Acting the problems out 
• Acting the solutions out
• Taking a video of the role play. 
• Basic video editing
• Upload the video to Youtube and share the link with you in the back channel/email. This can be done after the lesson. 

Assessment:

The next step in this strategy is to have the learners assess each others role play with a view to reward the top roleplays (gamification). This can be in the follow-up lesson or as homework. They can physically swap tablets or view the roleplays on Youtube. This means that they would have dealt with at least 2 issues within the classroom topic (their own and the group they are assessing). You can also ask them to assess all the roleplay videos as assessment (individually or as a group). 

They then have to complete the assessment and score the group according to the given score sheet. This can be done physically (complete the printout and submit a photo of the results-lowtech) or do it using a google form (see example) or online collaborative spreadsheet (see example). The winning team are then rewarded. This can also count as formative assessment grading. 

Debriefing

It is important that ALL the issues are briefly discussed with pertinent questions to guide the discussion. This can be done in the back channel were you will be able to monitor that all the learners are giving input. You can also use a wordcloud application to summarise the main points and contributors (Wordclouds, Wordle, Tagcrowd, or for a list see here: http://www.edudemic.com/word-cloud-generators/) 

Badging

In order to achieve this badge I will need the following from you.

You only have to submit 1 roleplay planner but can submit more than one for this badge. So I would like to know what your lesson was all about as well as what issues and scenarios were given to the learners to contemplate and turn into a roleplay. You can do this in your Memoires with photos and text if you want to. I would like you to upload the best roleplay video or supply the roleplay video link (but you may upload/supply all of your learner groups' roleplays if you like). Upload the roleplay planner(s) to your Google drive  ( I would have send you a link to that) as well as your lesson plan summary.

Assessment is not specifically included in this badge but you will be submitting an assessment badge soon and this can count towards that badge. The assessment part of this activity is very important and serves to expose the learners to different issues and solutions.

Lesson plan ideas: How do I do this in my subject area? 
Now it is your turn to think about how you can use Role play within what you are doing at the moment in your classroom. Consult the "Doing it differently" section in your Course Manual.

If you have any questions or would like to run some ideas past me, please use the comment section below so that we can all explore together.